It's Showtime 59 is live from Tenerife, Spain in just a few moments here with a stacked card featuring fighters like Andy Souwer, Sergei Laschenko, Andy Ristie, Javier Hernandez and more. The event can be purchased from showtimefights.com for just 10 euros (about $12.50 USD). I will be live tweeting results at @liverkickdotcom as well.

Andy Ristie (R1 - KO) David Calvo - A brutal knee by Ristie that came up the middle put Calvo down very early in the first round and he was unable to answer the count. Props to Calvo for stepping in on late notice, but wow.

Amir Zeyada (Decision) Moises Ruibal - I have no clue what happened in this fight. Major technical difficulties.

Sergei Laschenko (R1 - KO) Danny Garcia

They now bring out Moises Ruibal and announce that the judges score cards were not rendered correctly, and that he is the rightful winner of the bout with Amir Zeyada.

Murthel Groenhert (R2 - Cut Stoppage) Maximo Suarez - Murthel looked a bit rough in R1, but was able to pull it together for the second round and open a nasty cut on Suarez for the finish.

61kg Championship: Masahiro Yamamoto (R5 - Decision) Sergio Hernandez - Masahiro Yamamoto was completely on point throughout the fight. His knees were doing a lot of damage and keeping Hernandez off balance while his hands did a bulk of the work.

Andy Souwer (R3 - Decision) Zeben Diaz - Diaz put up a really great fight, almost a dead even fight with Souwer, but the third round was truly a deciding factor for both men. Souwer rocked Diaz with a right hand which more or less sealed the fate of the bout. Diaz is really a legitimately good fighter.

If you are a fan of John Wayne Parr (and by all means, you should be), it has been a bit of a rollercoaster year to say the least. According to JWP himself, 2011 was his final year as a fighter. He had achieved everything that he wanted to and was going to ride off into the sunset. Then something happened, JWP was picking up wins, big wins, and retirement did not seem like that great of an idea anymore. He obviously still had a lot left to do in the Kickfighting world and there were a lot of asses for him to kick. Then, mid-way through the year, something as innocent as his daughter participating in a Muay Thai bout became international headline news and JWP's parenting skills came into question.

As someone who has had the distinct pleasure of interacting with Mr. Parr, I have to say that it is ridiculous to question his love for his family, for fighting or for anything else in this world. JWP is a stand-up guy and anyone who thinks differently should re-evaluate their priorities.

This brings us to the matter at hand, which is that JWP has a big fight coming up in February in his home land of Australia. According to our good friends at Muay Thai Authority he'll be taking on one of the United State's best and brightest in Ky Hollenbeck.If you haven't seen Hollenbeck's recent string of fights, I implore you to do so as he is an incredibly legitimate fighter. The event is Knees of Fury 36 and will go down on February 25th. [source]

GLORY fighter Gabriel Varga was set to compete at the K-1 USA vs. China event on January 1st in China but it looks like all of that has gone up in smoke over the past day. Varga is reporting on having visa issues. Upon entering China they found that he did not have the proper paperwork to enter the country, which meant that he had to turn around and go right back home to Canada.

Definitely a bit of a bummer for those looking forward to seeing Varga fight. The good news is that there are no other issues as of press time with the event and it should go off without a hitch. We'll keep you posted on any further news for the K-1 China vs. USA event.

It is just a week away until Tyrone Spong will step into the ring at It's Showtime 58 against the legend Peter Aerts. The bout is slated to be Mr. K-1's retirement in the Benelux region of Europe, originally his full retirement, before Glory stepped in with an offer that he couldn't refuse. As we are all very aware of, Spong is training in Florida alongside the Blackzilian camp, which includes UFC Heavyweight contender and former K-1 World Grand Prix champion Alistair Overeem. This means that Spong and Overeem train together, and for Spong, who better to train with than the man that narrowly defeated him in K-1? The team behind the Reem was there to photograph their training and share it with the world.

Kickboxing has long been all about the heavyweight weight classes. If you were to ask anyone about K-1 the first thing that would come to mind would be the K-1 World Grand Prix. Of course, there is a good reason for that. When modern kickboxing in the form of K-1 began in Japan it was to appeal to the local audiences with a blend of Kyokushin, Karate and professional wrestling. The Japanese public was always attracted to the idea of the clash of titans (I mean, really, isn’t everybody?) so K-1 focused heavily on the Heavyweights.

If you look at GLORY, SuperKombat and even promotions like Enfusion you’ll see that the focus is still largely on the heavier weight classes. No matter what Badr Hari is doing it is news, if Peter Aerts is in a pro wrestling match in Japan everyone cares and people still ask if Sem Schilt will ever return to the ring. Speculation over Alistair Overeem leaving the UFC to return to kickboxing has been healthy for his entire UFC run. Needless to say, the big guys draw eyeballs.

The one real anomaly is the rise of K-1’s MAX division in the 2000’s. It was an idea created to promote the handsome and talented MASATO originally, but the reality was that it created a good number of stars and helped to make something outside of Heavyweight sustainable. We’ve seen the rise of a few stars like Giorgio Petrosyan, Buakaw Banchamek, Andy Ristie, Robin van Roosmalen and many more. It’s Showtime helped to push forward with expanded weight classes and GLORY is continuing along the path with the Light Heavyweight and Middleweight classes a big focus over the last year.

If we look at other sports the focus isn’t always just on huge, lumbering titans, though. While American Football might have a few such characters, a lot of the time the smaller, more agile players end up a focal point. The home run sluggers in baseball might draw eyeballs, but not all baseball players are Mark Mcguire. In football (you know, soccer) it is even more clear that you don’t (and shouldn’t) be a giant to be successful. Look no further than some of the lines at betting at William Hill to see how diverse the playing field can be.

At GLORY 20 Gabriel Varga and Mosab Amrani will compete for the GLORY Featherweight Championship. It’s a solid first step, although there is confusion as to if this will air on the SuperFight Series or on Spike TV. Last that I’ve heard it was the SuperFight Series. Even so, it will be the headliner for that show that will air on CBS Sports Network and across the globe as its own show.

Then, of course, is K-1’s 55kg World Grand Prix going down in Japan on April 19th. K-1 Japan has been putting out a steady stream of events featuring smaller weight classes and has been wildly entertaining. As long as the big players in kickboxing keep focusing on smaller weight classes there is still hope that the lighter, more technical and quick weight classes can shine in the near future.

Today’s announcement from It’s Showtime about K-1 contracting some of their top fighters confirms months upon months of rumors and discussion about what would happen with K-1. There has been a behind-the-scenes war of sorts between two factions; Golden Glory and It’s Showtime. Without a doubt both factions are where the power lies within the Kickboxing world right now, with top names working on both sides and there being some crossover when at all possible.

A good example of crossover would be Robin van Roosmalen, the It’s Showtime Fast and Furious 70kg MAX 2011 Champion. In a world without K-1, the Fast and Furious tournament was without a shadow of the doubt the biggest tournament for 70kg fighters. Van Roosmalen worked his way through the most prestigious tournament possible while representing Golden Glory. On top of that, Errol Zimmerman and Gokhan Saki appeared on It’s Showtime’s latest card, with the rumor being that both men worked out their own deals in the fall to participate on the card.

Both factions have the very best talent in the top weight divisions in the world, making cards featuring both fight camps imperative to see the best competition and best fights in the world. When talks surfaced of both sides looking to become closer to the troubled K-1 over the past six months or so, it was clear that whomever won the race to latch onto K-1 would leave the other one in a predicament. It turns out that Golden Glory lost their bid for K-1, but with the help of investor and partner Total Sports Asia, have been assembling three huge tournaments at Heavyweight, 85kg and 70kg, with a total of $1 million as a prize.

This announcement of K-1 working with It’s Showtime to help acquire talent for K-1 events comes and it appears that the rumors of It’s Showtime working with Mr. Kim to help rebuild K-1 seem to be true. That comes along with Golden Glory talking about their extreme displeasure with Mr. Kim, who bought K-1 out from under their noses, which leads the reality to Golden Glory probably not looking to work with Mr. Kim any time soon.

The reality of these announcements is that unless both sides can work together, a fractured Kickboxing scene is looking to come to fruition within short order. For the Glory World Series tournaments, it could mean that Daniel Ghita, Hesdy Gerges, Tyrone Spong, Melvin Manhoef, Sahak Paparyan, Andy Souwer and many more might be off-limits. For K-1, it could means that in the World Grand Prix and World MAX Tournament we could be looking at tournaments that do not include Semmy Schilt, Errol Zimmerman, Gokhan Saki, Sergei Kharitonov, Mark Miller, Robin van Roosmalen, Nieky Holzken and others.

The other reality is, for fighters who have fallen out with It’s Showtime, it could mean a hard time working with K-1. The big name that I am thinking about here is Giorgio Petrosyan, who recently broke away from It’s Showtime over monetary disputes. We do know that K-1 has been in talks with fighters outside of It’s Showtime’s management, and for now we can only speculate and hope that K-1 is able to bring in the other big names in the Kickboxing world and is willing to come to an agreement with Golden Glory, and vice versa, for the Glory World Series.

If you are familiar with your kickboxing history this is a really, really cool addition to the list of names in attendance for the K-1 Open Tryouts at Muscle Beach. On top of that it looks like the man himself, Rob Kamen, will also be there to help out along with a few other American trainers.

BENNY "THE JET" URQUIDEZ TO ATTEND K-1 TRYOUTS!

THE TOP TRAINERS IN THE BUSINESS TO BE ON HAND TO HELP OVER 200 K-1 HOPEFULS

Registration for Tryouts to Close Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PT

Los Angeles, CA - K-1 today announced yet another fighting superstar, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, will be in attendance at Muscle Beach this Thursday for the official K-1 Tryouts. Urquidez joins kickboxing giants Alistair Overeem, Rick Roufus, Tyrone Spong, Mighty Mo, Dewey Cooper and Masato, who are already scheduled for the July 19 event.

Also, K-1 today announced it has confirmed more than a dozen of the best trainers in the business, including Colin Oyama, Gene Fields, Paulo Tocha, Rob Kamen and Mark Breecher to take the more than 200 Hopefuls pre-registered through their drills and the tryout process.

The world of kickboxing has a rich history to fall back upon so we here at LiverKick figure, why not? Why not give a glimpse into some of the fights from the past that have made up this wonderful sport and tie it all in to the present. The kids on the Instagram and Twitter like to call Thursdays "Throwback Thursdays," I'm just going to say that this is a LiverKick Throwback.

Melvin Manhoef will be fighting in the Last Man Standing tournament on June 21st in Los Angeles for GLORY, meeting Filip Verlinden in the first round of the tournament. To say that Melvin Manhoef at Middleweight will be a force to be reckoned with is putting it lightly; Melvin Manhoef was a force to be reckoned with at Heavyweight. If you need proof of that, look no further than December 6th, 2012, when Melvin Manhoef fought in the Reserve bout for the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 against tough Australian slugger Paul Slowinski.

Paul Slowinski is a legitimate 6'3" 240lbs while Manhoef is 5'8" and has fought as low at 170lbs in the past. This is just so you understand the size difference going into this fight and why Melvin Manhoef is so impressive. Melvin Manhoef was never the best Heavyweight Kickboxer in the world, but he was able to knock out some of the best and make it look easy. That's incredible.

Sometimes with Kickboxing timing is everything, and right now it is very clear to see why GLORY would feel it an inopportune time for one of their Heavyweight stars, Semmy Schilt, to no longer be an active fighter. While Semmy might not be the most fan-favorite fighter in the world, he is seen as one of the best Heavyweight Kickboxers of all time, with the credentials to match.

Yesterday we discussed the very real rumor of Semmy Schilt being retired, as we heard from sources very close to Schilt that he was having health issues and decided to no longer fight. This did not come as a surprise to us in the least, as Schilt had already been talking about no longer participating in tournaments and there was talk of him maybe fighting once or twice more before calling an end to his career.

GLORY's CEO discussed a few things with MMAMania's Brian Hemminger, one of the questions was about Schilt's retirement, to which he had this to say;

"As far as I know, he's on our active roster and that is certainly the case until he tells us. As far as we know, which is pretty close to the source, he hasn't announced anything at all that would prompt us to pick up the phone and give him a ring. As far as we can see, the press on the story has no primary sources whatsoever so until we hear it from Semmy, we're really excited to have him as a champion with us every since he came on board and signed with us."

While we respect Mr. Whittaker and his position, there were indeed primary, reliable sources on this. We've discussed the issue more with our sources, who've yet to actually be wrong in many years, and it was revealed that Schilt is indeed healthy now, but has still decided not to continue his fighting career. A statement from him has been expected, but possibly due to the Spike TV deal it will be delayed.

Ah summer, with love in the air and celebrity gossip magazines there to take candid shots of them and repost them with scandalous headlines. That is your life if you are Kickboxing superstar Badr Hari and you find yourself involved with Dutch soccer legend Ruud Gullit's wife, Estelle Gullit, going as far as said wife leaving her superstar husband and taking up a serious relationship with you. This photo is courtesy of Marloes Coenen's twitter. As we wait to find out if Badr will be fighting for Glory or not, we are instead treated to photographs of him enjoying his life. Good for him.